White Magic

One can design almost anything from chocolate,” says Swiss chef Adelbert Bucher as his deft fingers mould lumps of white chocolate into a series of minarets and domes. Bucher,who’s been the master chocolatier for Swiss chocolate brand Lindt for 10 years,is well-known for crafting models of the Emirates Towers in Dubai and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul in brown chocolate. At The Maurya in Delhi,where he is promoting Lindt,Bucher bends over the chocolate minarets and domes until they take a familiar form of the Taj Mahal.

“One has to be careful to maintain the chocolate temperature at 32 degrees celsius. Otherwise there will be a flowing river of chocolate,” he says. The 3×3 ft replica of the Taj Mahal weighs 35kg and will be on display at The Maurya lobby till Sunday. “Fifteen years ago,I had designed the Taj Mahal in white sugar crystals,” adds the chocolatier,who is also brand ambassador of the Swiss chocolate manufacturer. Despite his fascination with the Taj,Bucher says he has never visited the monument. “I have only seen pictures in magazines and on the Internet,” he adds.

A few days ago,Bucher was in Mumbai where he designed a replica of the Worli Sea Link. “One cannot always make the usual chocolates. You need to innovate,create something unique every time,” he explains.

Bucher consumes 100gm of dark chocolate daily but swears by the blend of cocoa beans that makes Lindt. “It is not only the bean that makes fine chocolate. In my company,we have an extensive process which removes the lumpy elements from the chocolate and reduces the cocoa beans and sugar mixture to a fine texture,” he explains. On his travels,however,he willingly digs into local desserts. In Delhi ,he tried “a whitish round sweet”. Did he like it? “It was too sweet,” he cringes.